Home telematics devices and insurance applications

Abstract

Home telematics devices are engineered to identify unique device signatures for all appliances, fixtures, and so on that generate voltage noise, pressure waves, and acoustic responses throughout a property. The device signatures comprise the inventory of devices in the insured's home and are used to create an electronic record of the devices that assists him in filing a claim with an insurer that is quick and easy after a theft or total loss. Using the device signatures provided by home telematics devices' sensing an itemization technology, fraud detection is also possible. Additionally, analytics software predicts possible failure by analyzing the device signatures.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
       1. An apparatus comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing instructions that, with the one or more processors, configure the apparatus to:
 generate, based at least in part on scanning digital streams associated with a plurality of operating devices within a physical structure, a plurality of operating feature vectors representative of respective device signatures for each operating device of the plurality of operating devices, wherein generating the plurality of operating feature vectors based at least in part on scanning the digital streams comprises forming digital samples based at least in part on sliding sampling windows on the digital streams; 
 retrieve, from an operating device inventory associated with the physical structure, a plurality of stored feature vectors representative of stored respective device signatures for inventoried operating devices within the physical structure; and 
 responsive to determining that one or more stored feature vectors are absent from the plurality of operating feature vectors, prepare an electronic insurance claim for one or more operating devices associated with the one or more stored feature vectors. 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the digital streams comprise the digital samples representative of one or more of (a) transient voltage noise, (b) continuous, line-synchronous voltage noise, (c) continuous, high-frequency voltage noise, (d) pressure waves in the plumbing infrastructure, or (e) acoustic responses of a gas regulator. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the digital samples are generated by sampling analog signals received from operating devices. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein each inventoried operating device is associated with a classification. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein an operating device is one of an appliance, a fixture, a light bulb, a fan, a motor, an HVAC system, a forced air heater, a stove, a dryer, an electric heater, a compressor, a compact fluorescent lamp, a motor appliance, a gas-operated device, a mechanical device, a switched load, a television set, a DV player, a charging unit, a computer, or a mobile device. 
     
     
       6. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 generating, by one or more processors and based at least in part on scanning digital streams associated with a plurality of operating devices within a physical structure, a plurality of operating feature vectors representative of respective device signatures for each operating device of the plurality of operating devices, wherein generating the plurality of operating feature vectors based at least in part on scanning the digital streams comprises forming digital samples based at least in part on sliding sampling windows on the digital streams; 
 retrieving, by the one or more processors and from an operating device inventory associated with the physical structure, a plurality of stored feature vectors representative of stored respective device signatures for inventoried operating devices within the physical structure; and 
 responsive to determining that one or more stored feature vectors are absent from the plurality of operating feature vectors, preparing, by the one or more processors, an electronic insurance claim for one or more operating devices associated with the one or more stored feature vectors. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the digital streams comprise the digital samples representative of one or more of (a) transient voltage noise, (b) continuous, line-synchronous voltage noise, (c) continuous, high-frequency voltage noise, (d) pressure waves in the plumbing infrastructure, or (e) acoustic responses of a gas regulator. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the digital samples are generated by sampling analog signals received from operating devices. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 6 , wherein each inventoried operating device is associated with a classification. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 6 , wherein an operating device is one of an appliance, a fixture, a light bulb, a fan, a motor, an HVAC system, a forced air heater, a stove, a dryer, an electric heater, a compressor, a compact fluorescent lamp, a motor appliance, a gas-operated device, a mechanical device, a switched load, a television set, a DV player, a charging unit, a computer, or a mobile device. 
     
     
       11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an apparatus, configure the apparatus to:
 generate, based at least in part on scanning digital streams associated with a plurality of operating devices within a physical structure, a plurality of operating feature vectors representative of respective device signatures for each operating device of the plurality of operating devices, wherein generating the plurality of operating feature vectors based at least in part on scanning the digital streams comprises forming digital samples based at least in part on sliding sampling windows on the digital streams; 
 retrieve, from an operating device inventory associated with the physical structure, a plurality of stored feature vectors representative of stored respective device signatures for inventoried operating devices within the physical structure; and 
 responsive to determining that one or more stored feature vectors are absent from the plurality of operating feature vectors, prepare an electronic insurance claim for one or more operating devices associated with the one or more stored feature vectors. 
 
     
     
       12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the digital streams comprise the digital samples representative of one or more of (a) transient voltage noise, (b) continuous, line-synchronous voltage noise, (c) continuous, high-frequency voltage noise, (d) pressure waves in the plumbing infrastructure, or (e) acoustic responses of a gas regulator. 
     
     
       13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , wherein the digital samples are generated by sampling analog signals received from operating devices. 
     
     
       14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein each inventoried operating device is associated with a classification. 
     
     
       15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein an operating device is one of an appliance, a fixture, a light bulb, a fan, a motor, an HVAC system, a forced air heater, a stove, a dryer, an electric heater, a compressor, a compact fluorescent lamp, a motor appliance, a gas-operated device, a mechanical device, a switched load, a television set, a DV player, a charging unit, a computer, or a mobile device.